Jewish Women's Archive - Ethnicityhttp://jwa.org/blog/ethnicity
enThe words of Iranian Jewish American Womenhttp://jwa.org/blog/iranian-jewish-american-women
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<div class="field-item even"><p> After a long hiatus filled with applications for scholarships and preparation for standardized tests, I have recently returned to my primary duty as a graduate student: graduating – that is, fulfilling the requirements necessary to graduate. In this case, that means writing my MA thesis, which is an examination of memoirs and personal essays by Iranian Jewish women who are living in the United States. It’s an interesting project, if occasionally overwhelming, and it reminds me every day that my own experience of Jewish life is not consistent with the lives of Jews everywhere. (I suppose that fact should be self-evident, but sometimes it takes a little bit of reminding.) Jewish people have lived in most parts of the globe, from <a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history/Jewish_World_Today/Jews_Around_the_Globe/jews-india/cochin.shtml">Cochin, India</a> to <a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history/Jewish_World_Today/Jews_Around_the_Globe/irishjews.shtml?HSTY">Dublin, Ireland</a> to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Afghanistan">Kabul, Afghanistan</a>. </p>
<p> The Jews of Iran have a particularly long history, but it is only recently that Jewish woman have begun to publish about their lives and identities as Iranian/Persian Jews. Since I’ve been delving into these texts quite deeply as of late, I’d thought I’d share a few that may be of interest to fellow JWA blog readers. If you like these, or want to know more about some other texts (there is some fiction out there, too!), just give me a shout in the comments. </p>
<ul><li> <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wedding-Song-Memoirs-Iranian-Jewish/dp/1584654449/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1288121684&amp;sr=8-8">Wedding Song</a></i> by <a href="http://www.faridehgoldin.com/">Farideh Goldin</a> is a sad, beautiful story of Goldin’s life and childhood in the Jewish ghetto of Shiraz, Iran, and her subsequent emigration to the United States prior to the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Goldin’s book tells a detailed story about Jewish ritual practice and culture in a working-class Jewish community. She is not nostalgic for Iran, but she does not wear rose-coloured glasses when it comes to life in America, either. Published in 2003 by Brandeis University Press, Goldin’s memoir was the first to be published by an Iranian Jewish woman.</li> </ul><ul><li> <a href="http://www.royahakakian.com">Roya Hakakian’s</a> <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Land-No-Girlhood-Revolutionary/dp/0609810308/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1288121738&amp;sr=8-1">Journey from the Land of No</a></i> provides a strong contrast with Goldin’s text. Hakakian is younger than Goldin, and comes from a wealthier, less-observant Tehran home. She engages much more with the politics of Iran than Goldin, and her book is concerned with the tumultuous years during and following the Revolution. Today, Hakakian is a journalist and commentator in America, and this is reflected in her memoir, which emerges from discussions with a non-Iranian journalist friend.</li> </ul><ul><li> <a href="http://loolwa.com/blog/">Loolwa Khazzoom</a> is the editor of <i><a href="http://loolwa.com/archive2/flying_camel.html">The Flying Camel</a></i>, an anthology of essays on identity by Jewish women of Middle Eastern and North African heritage. This book includes essays not only by Iranian Jewish women, but also women of Morocco, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, and elsewhere, as well as their descendents. If you read just one of the books listed here, <i>The Flying Camel</i> should be your top pick. It addresses the chronic absence of Mizrahi Jews (of Middle Eastern and North African descent) from dominant Jewish life in North America and Israel, and it does so by placing moving personal stories alongside trenchant critiques. Khazzoom has done a great job compiling diverse stories and linking them together in her introductory essay; the book is interesting, compelling, and important. Loolwa Khazzoom is featured in JWA's online exhibit <i>Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution.</i> <a href="/feminism/index.html?id=JWA042">Visit the exhibit</a> to read her statement and see a video of her talking about her nose.</li> </ul></div>
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<a href="/topics/immigration">Immigration</a>, <a href="/topics/memoirs">Memoirs</a><a href="/tags/iran">Iran</a>, <a href="/tags/identity">Identity</a>Wed, 27 Oct 2010 18:19:23 +0000lberkenwald14234 at http://jwa.orgIntroducing "Eating Jewish": The World of Jewish Foodhttp://jwa.org/blog/introducting-eating-jewish
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<div class="field-item even"><div class="jwa-media image "><a href="/media/jewish-food"><img src="/sites/jwa.org/files/styles/scale_width_300px/public/mediaobjects/hannukahfood.jpg?itok=OX1QkfFl" width="300" height="225" alt="Jewish Food" /></a><div class="caption" style="width: 300px;"><a href="/media/jewish-food" class="object-details-link"><img src="/sites/jwa.org/themes/jwawesome/images/img_trans.png" class="sprite sprite-search" alt="Full image"></a><div class="caption-inner">&quot;Hannukah Dishes,&quot; photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/78695167@N00">Zeetz Jones</a>.
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<div class="field-item even"><p> The centrality of food to the Jewish experience is a fact that is undeniable. It serves to identify one as a Jew, while at the same time defines one’s particular identity within the wider sphere of the Jewish community. </p>
<p> To speak of Jewish food is to speak of food that comes from communities that span the globe. Although Jewish food is varied, one indisputable quality, is its adaptability. In the various places Jews have lived, they have adapted their cuisine to the culinary landscape in which they found themselves, through the modification of recipes and food preparation in order to allow for conformity to the dietary laws. Thus, Jewish food has been influenced by the variety of cuisines in the places that Jews have settled, while at the same time coming to influence the food of these communities. This pattern of mutual influences continued with the immigration of Jews to the United States where, from the onset, Jewish cuisine was transformed in a number of ways. In turn, this has made the United States the site of an important convergence of communities and their food. </p>
<p> Through <i>Eating Jewish</i>, I intend to explore the multitude of Jewish food that is present in the American Jewish community. In doing so, I want to discuss and unpack the term that is Jewish food by looking closely at cookbooks, recipes and trends in the culinary landscape of the Jewish community. I want to explore the history, the development, and the transformation that has been, and is continuing to take place, in the food landscape of the Jewish community and what this means for the women who are part of this community. </p>
<p> Not only will <i>Eating Jewish</i> discuss Jewish food, but I also want to share recipes that I hope will encourage you to explore new dishes. Furthermore, I hope to capture the stories, the memories, identities, and voices of the women who have been preparing and eating these foods throughout the history of the Jewish community. In turn, through our discussions, I would like to add our own voices to this long culinary history that is still undergoing much development. </p>
<p> <i>Katherine Romanow is currently a graduate student pursuing her MA in Judaic Studies at Concordia University in Montreal. Her research focuses on Jewish food with a specific focus on foods served and prepared through the holiday of Passover. </i> <i>We are excited to announce that Katherine will be sharing her knowledge, perspective, and recipes with us</i><i> in a new segment called </i>Eating Jewish <i>at</i> Jewesses with Attitude.<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'"></span> </p>
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<a href="/topics/food">Food</a>Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:59:49 +0000lberkenwald14116 at http://jwa.org